Post subject: Re: Building Process of the Water Cooler Green Reactor 3D Te

Posted: 08 Jul 2010, 15:56

Site Admin

Joined:29 Apr 2010, 17:51Posts: 3148Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

I've almost forgot that I'll be needing a wireless WiFi connection for that PC as well, so I quickly got a cheap, but good Tenda 300 Mbps wireless card that had to also be painted in black. To do it quickly and easily I've used the black permanent market yet again...

The final result looks quite good, and I'll just have to use a black spray to paint the backplate in black in order to make it look like the rest of the backplates. But that is one of the additional final finishing touches that can be done at a bit later time.

Bloody

Post subject: Re: Building Process of the Water Cooler Green Reactor 3D Te

Posted: 08 Jul 2010, 15:56

Site Admin

Joined:29 Apr 2010, 17:51Posts: 3148Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

Here is an interesting solution that has worked just fine with the power cables for the video card. I've already mentioned that the copper water cooling block is quite heavy and because of it the back end of the video card can tilt down and that in nor recommended to be left like that, so I've used the two power cables in order to support the card at the rear end and provide the required stability and keep the PCB straight. In the end it worked pretty well as an effective way to balance the weight of the video cards and it also looks very well, so a real win-win situation...

I'm pretty sure that I've missed some things in the work log above, like for example mentioning and showing the Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card that I've installed in the system. The card is with a black PCB and fits nicely, so I just had to paint the backplate in black. Also the CPU I'm currently using is a Core i5 750 instead of the planned at first Core i7 860, but I'm waiting for the new Intel K-series processors with unlocked multipliers to see how well will they perform.

Bloody

Post subject: Re: Building Process of the Water Cooler Green Reactor 3D Te

Posted: 08 Jul 2010, 16:01

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Joined:29 Apr 2010, 17:51Posts: 3148Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

And here is a small gallery of the computer almost finished with a lot of small finishing details only left to be done, so it is pretty much ready and working at this point of time. I'll just update with some more pictures when all the finishing touches are ready... So stay tuned for more information and photos.

And here are the temperatures of the CPU and the GPU under load with default frequencies (not overclocked). The two components are being cooled in a single loop with the water first going through the CPU and then through the GPU water block. For really stressing both main components I'm using LinX for the CPU and FurMark for the GPU running with everything to the max and even 32xAA active to really push the video card to the limit...

The processor being currently used is Intel Core i5 750, a quad-core CPU with idle temperature of about 34 degrees Celsius and it goes to around 50 degrees Celsius in about 20 minutes and stays at that temperature after that. This is with an ambient temperature of about 30 degrees Celsius and the fans not running at 100%, but at 60% instead to be really quiet, which still providing really good airflow and cooling performance.

The idle temperature of the GPU is around 42 degrees Celsius with 30 ambient temperature in in about an hour of serious load with FurMark its temperature rises up to 71-72 degrees Celsius max and pretty much stays there after that. If the cooling liquid did not go first through the CPU block and then through the GPU block the temperature could've been lower, but even this way it is still very good. Silent operation and around 25 degrees lower temperature as compared to the loud air cooling and the high working temperatures reached with the same level of high load otherwise. If staying at default working frequencies the voltage of the CPU could be further lowered while the card continues to operate flawlessly, up to something like 0.86V the temperature drops with about 10 degrees under maximum load of the GPU, and that is something that you should do if you do not intend to overclock the video card.

thomasjn

Post subject: Re: Building Process of the Water Cooled Green Reactor 3D Te

Posted: 09 Jul 2010, 00:15

Joined:07 May 2010, 15:44Posts: 65

Damn, what a project .

All that modding, painting everything, drilling holes, dismounting cooling-units and replacing them, putting up tupes and fittings and so on.How do you get the time to do all that? This watercooling project looks like a really big one, and the time and money you must have laid in it is amazing man

And the computer looks awesome, even tho i like red/black combinations more, the green and black fits good together with that computer.

By the way, as you mention youself, the top-part thing for the radiator, fits really good with that chassis.

TiTi

Post subject: Re: Building Process of the Water Cooled Green Reactor 3D Te

Posted: 09 Jul 2010, 22:37

Joined:04 May 2010, 00:12Posts: 14

Thx for sharing the building process with us.

Rig is coolPhotos are coolTips are interesting for someone who didn't customize his computer that much.

I personnally really like the integrated cooler water system, everything fits nicely.Nice the see the back.Once upon a time I was wondering about passive alimentations. Price is higher but might be worth it in terms of noise.

Hum last thing: in my opinion, something is missing : lights!I'm not talking about flashy lights everywhere, but I think it can look way better with lights!Probably working on it already?

Is the front audio cable armoured? In my case, my gtx260+ graphic card is making a lot of signal noise and I can hear some cracklings with a good headset.

Bloody

Post subject: Re: Building Process of the Water Cooled Green Reactor 3D Te

Posted: 09 Jul 2010, 22:55

Site Admin

Joined:29 Apr 2010, 17:51Posts: 3148Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

The green cooling liquid is UV reactive and I have some cold cathodes for it. I'm not a big fan of everything glowing in the PC, however a bit of UV will make it look nice and not make it glow. And maybe some discrete green leds...

Haven't tried the front audio yet, I'm using a USB headset for now... and I've even have an X-Fi audio card inside, don't ask me why

Adz 3000

Post subject: Re: Building Process of the Water Cooled Green Reactor 3D Te

Posted: 10 Jul 2010, 16:42

Joined:04 Jul 2010, 00:14Posts: 8

IVe gotta say well done on the build so far! Its looking awesome.

I would sooooo like to do something like this, but its just to expenisve Mabye 1 day

But anyways! Is it actuly up and running? whats it like for noise? and most importantly hows the preformance of the cooling ?

Post subject: Re: Building Process of the Water Cooled Green Reactor 3D Te

Posted: 13 Jul 2010, 11:53

Site Admin

Joined:29 Apr 2010, 17:51Posts: 3148Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

I've updated the last post with cooling performance in idle and under load...

Overclocking results to follow and the noise level is... more than acceptable and very close to totally silent.

vesper8

Post subject: Re: Building Process of the Water Cooled Green Reactor 3D Te

Posted: 13 Jul 2010, 19:54

Joined:22 Jun 2010, 23:33Posts: 6

Great project and the end result looks fantastic!

I'm almost tempted to buy everything the same and follow your thread as a tutorial for achieving the same results.

I don't suppose you wouldn't mind disclosing the total cost of this system and all its parts? It would help a lot in considering whether to go for it or not.

Bloody

Post subject: Re: Building Process of the Water Cooled Green Reactor 3D Te

Posted: 13 Jul 2010, 21:12

Site Admin

Joined:29 Apr 2010, 17:51Posts: 3148Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

To tell you the truth I don't know the exact total cost and I actually don't want to start calculating it at the moment. In projects like this if you limit the total cost the end result might not be as good as you'd want it to be and it will spoil the fun and the satisfaction you get when everything is finished. I however did not want to compromise in any way with the performance or the look of the water cooling system and the case that will hold everything inside. The components I'd use also had to be good, but they are not the top of the line and most expensive ones as for me it is a bit stupid to invest in everything that is simply the most expensive and "best" without considering at all price/performance ratio. Of course I'd love to go for an EVGA SR2 motherboard with dual Xeon processors, 4-way SLI with GTX 480 and 48 gigs of memory, along with a few SSD drives in RAID... however my budget is not unlimited...

Aside from the GTX 480 which is actually the best Nvidia-based video card at the moment (great to have if you want to play in stereo 3D mode), all other components are quite well balanced in order to have a nice set of features and achieve good performance while still managing not to have to sell my organs in order to purchase them...

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